Shen Muzhi found himself particularly bad at speaking when he was with Yan Xiao; every time he spoke, he seemed to irritate people.

Seeing that Yan Xiao didn't seem to want to talk to him, he felt a little uncomfortable.

"I really didn't mean anything by it, I was just worried about you."

Yan Xiao blinked in confusion: "What do I have to worry you about?"

A hint of hesitation flashed in Shen Muzhi's eyes, but in the end, he told the truth:

"That Duobao Pavilion is not an ordinary shop, and the people behind it are not ordinary people either."

"What do you mean by that? How is it not normal?"

Yan Xiao was now genuinely interested.

She had actually sensed that Duobaoge was unusual and was curious about the abilities of the person behind it. Now, judging from Shen Muzhi's words, he must know something and seemed somewhat wary of him.

Given this, why would Shen Muzhi, who has already occupied Jiangbei, tolerate such a force establishing itself there? Is there something fishy going on?

Shen Muzhi wasn't one to only say half of what he meant. Worried that Yan Xiao might not understand the implications, he patiently asked:

Have you ever heard the saying, "When a copper coin makes a jingling sound, gold is worth a fortune"?

"What copper coins...?"

Yan Xiao suddenly stopped speaking. Many people had heard this sentence, but few knew its meaning, but she knew it very well.

This book features a mysterious and incredibly wealthy force, whose exact age is unknown, and which has shops in various countries and regions.

There are many types of shops, covering all walks of life, but they have one thing in common: these shops sell all kinds of information.

Occasionally, it also includes various secret information from different countries, but the price is not something that ordinary forces can afford.

They are not close to any force, do not belong to any country, and have no bottom line; they only care about money.

This is very similar to Yan Xiao; as long as you can afford the price, he will agree and give you a satisfactory answer.

This kind of force is naturally intolerable to all countries and has been besieged and suppressed many times, but to no avail.

You can't destroy all of them by eliminating one. Before long, it will reappear in a different form, and will try its best to collect all the information about the forces that are trying to eliminate it, and then make it public. After that, it will disappear without a trace.

The information that gets published, from minor scandals and incestuous secrets to major power deployments, can expose you completely, leaving you with nothing but your underwear, and you have absolutely no way to do anything about it.

When they do these things, they hang a string of copper coins at the gate of that power or on the city wall. The coins will make a sound when they move in the wind, which means that they are about to take revenge.

Even if those forces found out, there was nothing they could do but let things develop as they pleased.

If you don't provoke it, it will coexist peacefully with you, just like an ordinary shop. Over time, no one will bother to provoke it.

When Yan Xiao was reading the novel, she always felt that the people behind that power were her idols and represented the life she wanted most.

However, that force has a very small presence in the book, only mentioned in passing, and its appearance seems to be just to give Shen Muzhi a cheat code.

The story begins when Shen Muzhi defeats the barbarian bandits but can't find the barbarian king. Just when he's at his wit's end, the female protagonist unintentionally saves a woman's life.

The woman was heartbroken and wanted to end her life. The female protagonist knew the woman, so she naturally rescued her.

It was only later that they learned that the woman was actually the woman of someone behind some powerful force.

That faction has not been in the business of selling information since the beginning of the chaotic era.

However, after the female protagonist saved the woman by a twist of fate, the person behind her returned the favor by sending Shen Muzhi the location of the barbarian king's hiding place, as well as various layout maps, which led to the barbarian king dying peacefully without any power to resist.

Seeing Yan Xiao's expression after Shen Muzhi finished speaking, he knew she must have heard something about it, so he carefully explained to Yan Xiao how difficult the other party was, and then said directly:

"I don't want you to get involved with the other party. I'm worried that you won't meet their expectations in the end, and they'll resent you."

"For something like this, he wouldn't necessarily turn against my General's Mansion, but given their ways, it's quite possible he'd cause you some trouble. You don't want to be constantly being secretly targeted, do you?"

Yan Xiao barely listened to what Shen Muzhi said; she was carefully recalling the plot about that faction in the book.

However, there was very little plot information, and she didn't remember much. She could only think of a few details, but near the end of the series, because the female lead saved a woman, that force came to offer warmth to Shen Muzhi, saving her a lot of trouble.

As for the woman's name, she didn't know. The person behind that force never actually appeared, so she knew even less about their name.

Are you sure?

"Confirm what?" Shen Muzhi was waiting for Yan Xiao to nod, but when he heard this question, he was completely dumbfounded.

He smiled silently, looking at Shen Muzhi with the eyes of someone looking at a fool:

"Of course, it's about whether we can confirm whether that Treasure Pavilion is related to the force you mentioned."

Shen Muzhi was exasperated by Yan Xiao's look, but he still patiently answered:

"It must be a shop run by that force. In these chaotic times, their supply of goods has never been interrupted or intercepted, and they have never hired a security escort agency."

And the shop's servants and maids should all be quite skilled; I can't think of any other possibility besides their connections."

Yan Xiao glanced at Shen Muzhi and asked in confusion:

"In these chaotic times, are you comfortable with such a force establishing itself in Jiangbei? Aren't you worried it might sell your military secrets?"

Upon hearing this, Shen Muzhi hesitated for a moment before replying:

"I sent people to test them, but they couldn't get to the third floor. Based on information gathered from other sources, they probably don't want to get involved in this chaotic world anymore and want to stay out of it and not do the business of selling information."

In such chaotic times, such people either become their own people or die. The wisest course of action for those behind the scenes is to withdraw; otherwise, they risk becoming the target of everyone's wrath.

Since that's the case, it's best to keep things peaceful. Why should I care what they do?

Yan Xiao thought about it and felt that Shen Muzhi made sense. If she were the person behind that power, she would also be keeping a low profile.

She was just too curious about the person behind it all; the way that force operated was really to her liking.

If possible, she would love to connect with the person behind it all and make money together.

Putting everything else aside, their way of making money is absolutely number one in the world.